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Re: 'Arsenic Trioxide' Spam
By:Paul Jacobson
Date: 5/6/1999, 10:14 am
In Response To: Re: 'Arsenic Trioxide' Spam (Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks)

> This counts as Spam. I usually delete spam, but if anyone can tell us what
> 'Arsenic Trioxide' is good for, I would like to know.

This guy wants 100 metric tons a month? That could make a lot of people VERY sick. This stuff is definitely poisonous.

My handbook of Chemistry and Physics has lots of info on this stuff. The maximum allowable concentration of arsenic is recommended to be 0.5 mg/cubic meter of air, so anyone with a calculator can see how much air would be polluted if this stuff got into a stiff breeze. Briefly, when the element arsenic is heated it rapidly oxidizes and it turns into arsenous oxide (As2 O3), with the odor of garlic. This is also know as white arsenic and the only tri oxide arsenic they list commercial properties for. Several aresenic compounds are used ss agricultural insecticides. This compound is not one, but it could be used as a raw material in manufacturing these products.

Other uses are in bronzing, pyrotechny (yup, thats how they spell fireworks) and for hardening and improving the sphericity of shot. (These would be the lead things that fly out of a shotgun.)

Arsenic is also being used in the field of solid state electronic devices as a doping agent. Gallium Arsenide is used for solid-state laser devices and can convert electricity to coherent light.

From my personal storehouse of trivia I can add that at one time arsenic compounds were used medicinally. It is a heavy metal that builds up in your body. Samples of Napoleon Bonaparte's hair showed high levels of arsenic, leading some historians to question whether he was poisoned, or whether the accumulation was from arsenic he took as treatment for a venereal disease. If acquired in small quantities the human body stores this stuff, eliminating it slowly, and can develop a certain tolerance for it, This leads to another school of thought that Napoleon may have taken low doses of arsenic to build up his resistance to it, in order to prevent being poisoned.

To the best of my knowledge, Arsenic is NOT used in producing Spam. while there are many myteries about what really IS in spam, I'm sure the Hormel company would not like it if people thought their product contained poisons.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about arsenic ( and Spam)

I would hope this helps someone, but I kinda doubt it will.

Paul Jacobosn

Messages In This Thread

'Arsenic Trioxide' Provide
Unic -- 5/6/1999, 3:42 am
Re: 'Arsenic Trioxide' Spam
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 5/6/1999, 9:31 am
Re: 'Arsenic Trioxide' Spam
Paul Jacobson -- 5/6/1999, 10:14 am
Re: 'Arsenic Trioxide' Spam
Mark Kanzler -- 5/6/1999, 10:23 am
Re: 'Arsenic Trioxide' Provide
Mike Scarborough -- 5/6/1999, 8:16 am